Printers upset Millstadt, Waterloo tops Valmeyer
It was a beautiful day for baseball to kick off the 2013 Valmeyer Mid-Summer Classic in Borsch Memorial Park. A stark contrast from last year’s blazing hot temperatures, a large crowd came out to enjoy baseball on an 85-degree Independence Day.
The St. Louis Printers started off the day, upsetting Millstadt VFW, 6-5. With just one error in the game coming from Millstadt, the Printers knocked them into the consolation bracket despite being out-hit by the VFW 10-9.
The highly touted Cape Girardeau Capahas took the following game from the Belleville Rockies, 5-3, in their first match-up of the tournament. Cape put up 11 hits to the Rockies’ six in the errorless game.
The third game of the day between the Fairview Heights Redbirds and St. Louis Spikes seemed to go on forever as the double-digit game saw Fairview pull out the win, 13-11.
At about 5:30 p.m. the first pitch of the day’s prime-time game between local rivals the Waterloo Millers and Valmeyer Lakers was slung by St. Louis University’s Brett Vanover.
Waterloo’s Brett Vanover (pitching) threw 107 pitches in the rival match-up against Valmeyer. Garrett Rohlfing (batting) toed the rubber for the Lakers to start as well.The Dunning brothers headed up the battle at the plate with Nick Dunning getting it started in the first inning, going on to score on an RBI single to right field.
But Valmeyer’s Jake Degener tied it up in the second inning with the game’s first home run, followed by another Valmeyer solo-shot by Marshall Vallandingham. The Lakers ended the inning up 2-1, but the two homers wouldn’t be enough.
Justin Dunning stepped up to the plate delivering two home runs — one a 3-run shot — in consecutive innings to seal the deal for the Millers.
Valmeyer heads to the consolation bracket to play the St. Louis Spikes at 9 a.m. Saturday, while the Millers will face Fairview Heights in the 4:30 p.m. semifinal game.
“We gotta have more runs on the board in the 4:30 (game) in order to win that. I think the person who wins the 4:30 will win the tournament,” Moehrs predicted, with their eyes on Cape for a possible championship match-up Sunday.
Click here, to see a schedule and updated tournament bracket.
To read more about the rival match-up and to hear from the coaches, pick up a copy the July 10th edition of the Republic-Times.
